-LRB- WIRED -RRB- -- Six buses , 40 teams , 48 hours and one winning business idea : The StartupBus is as close to blood sport as Silicon Valley entrepreneurship gets .

Part road trip , part code jam , the annual competition plunges participants , known as `` buspreneurs , '' into two days of frantic business development on the open road to the South by Southwest conference in Austin , Texas .

Once the geeks climb aboard the StartupBus , the clock begins ticking .

`` Everyone needs to bring their absolute A-game for 48 hours straight , '' says Jonas Huckestein , one of the winners who emerged from last year 's inaugural StartupBus contest . `` This can potentially bring about incredible performance . Much like a man may be able to run much faster and fight much stronger when in mortal danger . ''

Most startups headed for SXSW have developed their ideas for months if not years . They arrive with high hopes of becoming the next Twitter or Foursquare , both of which took off during Austin 's annual gathering of the geek elite .

By compressing the time from concept to prototype , the StartupBus becomes a pedal-to-the-metal business incubator , a rolling microcosm of what participants will encounter when they hit SXSW 's packed panels and parties , March 11 to 20 .

In fact , the StartupBus itself could be considered a meta startup : Organizers this year are developing an online game , the StartupBus Stock Exchange , in which players become virtual angel investors and invest in the companies as they 're built on the buses .

Players can upgrade their firms and win badges for accomplishments , all while real-world actions by the startup teams affect their standing .

From San Francisco to Austin

This year 's race began at 8 a.m. Tuesday , with two buses leaving from San Francisco 's SOMA neighborhood and headed toward Texas . Teams now have two sleepless days , undoubtedly punctuated by rushed roadside meals and bouts of car sickness , to create the best startup prototype they can .

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When the buses arrive in Austin , development stops . After the mental and physical brutality , teams present their hurried masterpieces to a panel of expert judges during the interactive portion of this year 's SXSW festival .

Because of the networking opportunities , the publicity from last year 's contest and the sheer challenge of the undertaking , StartupBus founder Elias Bizannes was flooded with applications this year from prospective buspreneurs . In 2010 , 50 people applied and 25 were selected .

This year , 1,200 expressed interest when the StartupBus site launched , 300 were invited to apply , and 160 are actually going . But the numbers are only one way the project has grown .

`` We 've had better applicants with more impressive pitches than the ones we 've seen in the job openings at the places we work , '' says Bizannes , who is a financial manager at search engine Vast.com and a scout for the AngelList group of investors .

Two teams won last year : DormDorm , a startup designed to rent colleges ' vacant dorm rooms to travelers during the summer , and DateBrowsr , a Hot or Not for dating profiles the service pulled from several sites .

Neither actually became real businesses , but many people involved in the StartupBus ' virgin voyage claim the experience was integral to both their personal and professional development , whether from skills learned or from connections made . Mick Johnson from the DormDorm team was accepted into startup funding firm Y Combinator and launched Whereoscope , which tracks family members by their cellphones .

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`` I 've made at least a few very close friends in the experience , '' says Huckestein , now one of this year 's San Francisco bus conductors , who does double duty as an IT worker during the beat-the-clock coding marathon . `` I believe this is largely due to the incredible constraints . ''

Over the last year , the competition has grown from one bus to six . Buses also left Tuesday morning from New York , Cleveland , Miami and Chicago , amid send-off party hangovers . -LRB- Yes , even nerds love beer . -RRB-

The San Francisco teams drained a keg of Spaten Monday night at the offices of startup networking site YouNoodle . The meet-and-greet gave the buspreneurs a chance to sniff out potential teammates and competitors . And to exchange quips .

`` You look like an Android user , '' said Volly founder and CEO Max Mullen to Ghost Nest founder Reid Evans , who is , in fact , an iPhone user .

For an actual athletic competition , drinking the night before might be bad form . But beer is an integral part of the startup lifestyle . It takes the edge off the pressure . When the buses arrive in Austin , the buspreneuers will be rewarded with a tour of the local tech culture during the Startup Crawl , which promises `` hot tech -LSB- and -RSB- cold beer . ''

The exact prizes for this year 's StartupBus competition are still being decided -LRB- iPads and incubator access have been mentioned -RRB- , but perhaps the most important rewards for participants are the networking opportunities and the potential for publicity .

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Several documentary filmmakers are capturing the event and CNN , CNET and All Things Digital have reporters on board some buses .

See some of this year 's StartupBus participants in the gallery above , and stay tuned for updates from the road , as Wired.com reports every glitch , bathroom stench and late-night code dump on this perilous journey into the dot-com cosmos .

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40 teams on six buses compete for 48 hours for one winning business idea

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Result is two days of frantic business development on road to SXSW conference

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Past participants say experience has been integral to personal and professional development